Tag Archive: FCAT

I’ve skimmed through SB 736 and it seems consistent with performance measures for private professions. It seems overkill to pass a bill that ties pay to performance, though. Isn’t your pay already tied to your performance? Do you feel that your peers in education are being fairly compensated at this time?

We’ll see what happens. Not sure how they plan to make this work and at the same time cut education funding. It’s like jumping into a pool that’s been drained.

There are provisions to judge performance based on other metrics in addition to or in lieu of the FCAT scores. Hopefully they’ll attach certain baselines to poor performing students, so that teachers aren’t dinged for not making miracles happen with the lumps of clay (poor performers) each year the student progresses. Yeah, I just called poor performing students lumps of clay. Lumps of clay aren’t not necessarily bad (see below).

I think the system needs reformed to be able to fail students that are failing. The responsiblity to learn falls on the students and parents, even if the teachers are sub-par. That’s what textbooks are for! Teachers are facilitators, not magicians! You can’t teach a lump of clay to do calculus. And sometimes, maybe, lumps of clay do better as a piece of pottery (not everyone is going to be able to do calculus). We need trade schools, art schools, etc.

It’s all going to be in how things are executed. Of course, I’m sure they’ll go the easy route.